Job stats suit against New York Law School hits final roadblock

New York’s top court won’t hear an appeal by graduates of New York Law School who unsuccessfully sought to hold the school responsible for their decision to enroll.

The New York Court of Appeals declined the case (PDF) on Thursday, the National Law Journal reports. An intermediate appeals court had dismissed the case in December. The Appellate Division, First Department had concluded the school’s job placement disclosures were “unquestionably incomplete” but not actionable under a state law that bars deceptive acts.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Jesse Strauss, said the court’s refusal isn’t a good sign for three other suits against law schools in New York, according the National Law Journal account. In January, a trial judge dismissed a similar suit against Albany Law School. Suits against Brooklyn Law School and the Hofstra University Maurice A. Deane School of Law are pending before the trial court.

Strauss told the NLJ he was disappointed that his legal team wasn’t able to reach its primary goal of obtaining compensation for the plaintiffs. “Our secondary goal,” he said, “was to change the way law schools operate and increase transparency, and we’ve done that.”